I often thought about quitting my FANG job (not Amazon though) and leaving my salary behind for a less stressful job with better work-life balance, as we so often read about.
But then I realized it’s not illegal to manage my own stress and set my own work-life balance, and keep my salary. The company could fire me, if it’s not enough for them, but so far they haven’t.
I think this is often overlooked. People set artificial expectations on themselves and say it’s the culture. Maybe at Amazon it is. In my experience it wasn’t.
> leaving my salary behind for a less stressful job with better work-life balance, as we so often read about.
Is work-life balance that much better somewhere else though. Pay is much less for sure but all jobs come with their own constraints and difficulties.
> But then I realized it’s not illegal to manage my own stress and set my own work-life balance, and keep my salary. The company could fire me, if it’s not enough for them, but so far they haven’t.
Exactly. I think if I was at the point of burnout, I would try to stick to 9-5, do my best and see what happens. However, this is easier said than done. For me, the main cause of stress is fear of underperforming, not deadlines. My colleagues are skilled and work hard. It really doesn't feel good to be outpaced. I don't want to be fired for performance reason (suffering from imposter syndrome already).
In any case, I think resilience and stress management should be things we work on, just like any other skills we need at work.
If that's possible, maybe the key is to refuse promotion and stay at a level where you can manage the expectations.
Managers make an enormous difference in sweatshop jobs like Amazon. I've been in a tough group in a large company but a great manager was able to create a pleasant team work culture.
> People set artificial expectations on themselves and say it’s the culture. Maybe at Amazon it is. In my experience it wasn’t.
We're talking about a company where management is always looking for excuses to fire you because they have mandatory firing quotas they have to meet no matter what. Your experience at better companies is not representative of Amazon.
I've done this too at many FANG companies. I've put too many expectations on myself. And at other times I've managed my own work-life balance. It's possible but it takes some foresight to set it up.
I noticed this while at Amazon two distinct cohorts, many who quit within a year and those who don’t tend to stay 6+ years. This could be the case at other places too.
But at Amazon it’s super critical and luck to start off in a team that’s supportive, isn’t in critical path and isn’t struggling with operational/oncall load. There are teams I had seen which would chew out new hires within 6 months.
But the mental mind game that the individual brings is just as important.
I joined a moonshot factory once, the boss had rampant ADHD, I switched projects 6 times in 6 months until I pulled the plug. Got my friend hired just before that, and he’s been there for 3 years now.
I know a guy who quit Amazon a while back after having a complete breakdown. He had to take 6 months out to get himself back together. Also as a large customer of AWS as well the bits of culture and technical knowledge that leaks out from their staff and the problems we've had getting simple stuff fixed via support suggests the place is a complete mess behind the scenes.
It's enough to tell them to sod off when they reached out to me.
Sounds like he read the room and left before he became the designated sacrifice to the performance review gods, so the rest of the team could work themselves to death for another year.
I don't think I get it. There're stressful jobs everywhere, small companies can be even worse - specially when you have to deal to with clients (or owners) directly.
My first job was in a body shop consulting firm that I quit after one year, very stressful in my opinion. But a colleague - who was onboarded with me - loved the job and is now leading the team.
I think it's all about recognizing your limits and boundaries and find a job that fits it, no need to complain about everything. What is bad for you might be good for others and the other way around.
So it actually happened years ago and he is rehashing the same story of his 2 months at Amazon.. He has since worked at Google for 1.5 years so maybe this person just doesn't want to work for FAANG.
But then I realized it’s not illegal to manage my own stress and set my own work-life balance, and keep my salary. The company could fire me, if it’s not enough for them, but so far they haven’t.
I think this is often overlooked. People set artificial expectations on themselves and say it’s the culture. Maybe at Amazon it is. In my experience it wasn’t.